Winter Term 2013/14

Course Description

This course is an introduction into formal concept analysis (FCA), a mathematical theory oriented at applications in knowledge representation, knowledge acquisition, data analysis and visualization. It provides tools for understanding the data by representing it as a hierarchy of concepts or, more exactly, a concept lattice. FCA can help in processing a wide class of data types providing a framework in which various data analysis and knowledge acquisition techniques can be formulated. In this course, we focus on some of these techniques, as well as cover the theoretical foundations and algorithmic issues of FCA.

Lecturer:  Prof. Sebastian Rudolph

Modules:  INF-BAS2, MCL-KR, MCL-PI

Status:  advanced unit

SWS (lecture/tutorial/practical):  2/2/0

Examination method:  written exam

Prerequisites:

• basic knowledge of propositional and first-order logic
• some familiarity with computational complexity

Organization

The first lecture will be on Wednesday, 16th October 2013, 09:20-10:50 (DS 2) in room INF E005.
The lecture is scheduled for Wednesday, 09:20-10:50 (DS 2) and the tutorial for Monday, 09:20-11:50 (DS2) in room INF E005.

Handouts and Slides

• 00_applications.pdf
• 00_organization-DD.pdf
• 01_concept_lattices.pdf
• T1.pdf
• T2.pdf
• T3.pdf
• T4.pdf, T4_solution.pdf
• 02_conceptual_scaling.pdf
• T5.pdf, T5_solution.pdf
• 03_closure_systems.pdf
• T6.pdf, T6_solution.pdf
• T7.pdf, T7_solution.pdf
• 04_implications.pdf
• T8.pdf, T8_solution.pdf
• T9.pdf, T9_solution.pdf
• 05_fca_exploration.pdf
• T10.pdf

References

• Bernhard Ganter and Rudolf Wille, Formal Concept Analysis: Mathematical Foundations, Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, 1999.
• Claudio Carpineto and Giovanni Romano, Concept Data Analysis: Theory and Applications, Wiley, 2004.
• Proceedings of the International Conference on Formal Concept Analysis, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, 2004-2012.